One of the great pleasures of woodworking is having a reliable and accurate jointer and planer. If these two machines, used in the first stages of any project, can be counted on to produce edges that are truly straight and square, and faces that are parallel, you’re off to a great start. Every step that follows will be easier, and you’ll be happier with the end results if you start by making good parts.

But even the most accurate planer and jointer setups will degrade over time, particularly as the knives dull. Although it’s important, we tend to put off changing jointer and planer knives until we must.

The trouble is, we don’t do it often enough to keep in practice. When we do get to it, we need to recall how and why we do these things. This article will serve as a refresher on the steps to take and a close look at some of the tools available to help. You can spend a fortune on tools you may only need once or twice a year, or you can achieve good results inexpensively.